MCT-5 Fluid revisited: After the Spill

Today we revisit MCT-5 in particular and it?s effectiveness in a real world environment. Be forewarned, what your about to see isn?t pretty and may have long term traumatic effects on those whom love their graphic cards. Remove the children from the room, put on your Goulashes and pour yourself a strong one.

Foolproof Watercooling

Midwest Cooling Technology MCT-5

Back in January we tested both Midwest Cooling Technology's MCT-5 & MCT-40 non-conductive, anti-corrosive, anti-algae, water-cooling alternatives. The fluids manufactured for Danger Den feature low pour temps, high boiling temps, are both anti-corrosive, non-conductive, possess anti-algae ingredients and of course UV reactive for those into lighting effects. They performed as advertised and I used MCT-40 in two different H20 systems for most of this year secure in the fact any leak wouldn't result in damaged hardware.

Based on your personality type the thought of a leak may be fleeting, or you may worry about it every time you leave your PC unattended. Whether you’re prone to worry or not there hasn't been a H20-system made that is absolutely impervious to leaks. Preventative measures are your best defense against leaks which is where Danger Den and MCT enter the picture. MCT's additives ensure it's non-conductivity, and those same ingredients also protect against processes suc as galvanic corrosion. A basic test of a liquid's resistance involves a multimeter as seen below. I placed a small amount of MCT-5 in a cap then placed the electrodes into the solution. The results can be seen below. In the first photo the electrodes are making contact, in the second their separated by the MCT-5;

Although a pre-mixed fluid offers many advantages over home-brewed H20 mixes, there are the nay-sayers whom will argue against the expense. Ultimately the investment is a mere pittance when you consider the potential cost of replacing a motherboard, graphics card, PSU or perhaps even your CPU. Complacency is dangerous especially when you’re mixing a potentially conductive electrolyte with electrical hardware. While I tend to be proactive, recently I inadvertently flexed my water block hose at its connector located just above a $600 video card;

As is evident from the photos above, the fluid completely evaporated leaving additive residue. These ingredients literally baked onto areas where the highest concentration of heat and voltage were present. Depending on the ingredient and the resulting metamorphosis both a white and/or green residue remained. Heat produced from the card most likely accelerated the oxidation process.

As bad as the residue appears the mere fact the spill went unnoticed long enough for the ingredients to reach such a state is telling. Based on my estimates approximately 72 hours elapsed between the leak and my noticing the dried residue on the card. I'm sure the leak occurred while I was installing the Alphacool Set 12V CORA 662 XP passive cooling system. Note the next series of photos shop the PCIe 16x slot wasn't immune from the effects as residue formed and built up along the pins. Once again residue accumulating along the slot is indicative of both heat and voltage.

My first impression was that the card must have been damaged even though I hadn't experienced any artifacts or re-booting. At the very least I thought it would be impossible to clean and I'm not the type to abuse the RMA process. From the condition of the PCIe slot I was absolutely shocked the motherboard hadn't fried.

To put it simply Danger Den endorsed MCT-5 does it job and may have saved me over $1200 in hardware.